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Re: To our resident camera buffs...

Hey, as long as we're talking close-up shots. . .

We've got some wooded acreage and my four year old picked up a tick one day. Her sister noticed it, which led to much screaming. Anyway, I pulled it out and took a few shots with our A700. The tick is on the kitchen counter, lit by a standard flashlight. I held the camera by hand. I've cropped down to just the tick. As I recall, these were probably around 1-2 inches from the lens.

Re: To our resident camera buffs...

This is cropped from the original, but this is what the 70-300mm IS DO lens can do when opportunity strikes:

Click for the bigger version 'nStuff. Note that the DO version of the Canon 70-300mm lens is different, twice as expensive and not quite as good as the $550 version of the 70-300mm lens. I took this with the 5D, it's a full frame DSLR, no correction factor. The Rebel will zoom in to about this much of the frame, maybe not quite as close. And this was about 7 feet from this Sharp-Shinned Hawk. This next one is for those who think I may have disturbed the little guy:

Re: To our resident camera buffs...

Originally Posted by myv65

Hey, as long as we're talking close-up shots. . .

We've got some wooded acreage and my four year old picked up a tick one day. Her sister noticed it, which led to much screaming. Anyway, I pulled it out and took a few shots with our A700. The tick is on the kitchen counter, lit by a standard flashlight. I held the camera by hand. I've cropped down to just the tick. As I recall, these were probably around 1-2 inches from the lens.

The tick was probably a hair over 1/8" side-to-side.

Originally Posted by Fluff n Stuff

Ew. A little screaming going on over here, too!

Yeah someone get the raid, I like bugs when they stay outside, Nice ichy pics though.

Re: To our resident camera buffs...

Originally Posted by Fluff n Stuff

This is cropped from the original, but this is what the 70-300mm IS DO lens can do when opportunity strikes:

Click for the bigger version 'nStuff. Note that the DO version of the Canon 70-300mm lens is different, twice as expensive and not quite as good as the $550 version of the 70-300mm lens. I took this with the 5D, it's a full frame DSLR, no correction factor. The Rebel will zoom in to about this much of the frame, maybe not quite as close. And this was about 7 feet from this Sharp-Shinned Hawk. This next one is for those who think I may have disturbed the little guy:

Yep... he fell asleep with me clicking away!

Fluff those are some nice pics. I`m glad you posted them because i wanted to ask the question of how do i treat cold weather shotting. Prep, and how do i keep the lenses from not getting condensation inside them. I`d like to get out this winter with the camera. TIA.

myv65, that a great shot, but i`m about to head to bed. And now i`m itching.

Re: To our resident camera buffs...

Originally Posted by scruff35

i wanted to ask the question of how do i treat cold weather shotting. Prep, and how do i keep the lenses from not getting condensation inside them. I`d like to get out this winter with the camera. TIA.

Keep your camera and lenses in a plastic bag when you go from cold to warm or vicey versy... the condensation ends up on the bag, not on the camera.

Keep your battery FULL when you go out; cold kills these things fast. I use the little hand-warmer pads; wrap 'em around the side of the camera with the battery. Spare batteries are good... but make SURE they are Canon brand, not off brand, and keep the spares warm. If you are out in the hills, bring a battery charger in the car; I use a plug-in transformer for the cigarette lighter. Works great, but takes time.

If the mirror locks up, it may have frozen water inside the camera. This is bad. Defrost, do NOT force! Bring some 180 proof Vodka. No, it's not for the camera; it'll dissolve the coatings on the lenses, don't do that. It's for the shooter 'nStuff. (beer freezes)

Re: To our resident camera buffs...

Just an added note on condensation. . .

{slips on engineer hat}

Not to be pedantic, but it may be worthwhile to explain just why and how condensation forms. Condensation forms when the relative humidity exceeds 100%. As air gets warmer, it can hold a higher percentage of water vapor. So if you have a fixed amount of air and a fixed amount of water, whether or not that water remains 100% as vapor depends on the temperature. Get it cold enough and eventually the air can no longer contain all the vapor in a gaseous state, so some gets converted to liquid (or ice if you're below freezing).

This is why you can "see your breath" on really cold days. It leaves your body warm and ~100% relative humidity and quickly cools. Unable to contain all the water in a vapor form, some condenses almost instantaneously.

Now for Fluff's tip. It condenses on the bag because the bag is exposed to the cold air and gets really cool long before the camera. So that excess moisture accumulates where it gets cold first. Going the opposite direction, cold to warm, is a bit different. If your camera is cold and you lock it in a sealed bag, the air in that bag will have very little moisture in it.

Here's the part Fluff left out. Ya need to leave the camera in the bag until it comes up to room temperature. If you pull it out cold and there's too much moisture in the air, it'll cool air in contact with it and cause condensation.

Now if you're in a place where the absolute humidity is ridiculously low, hey, no worries. Basically if the dew point is lower than the coolest temperature you'll experience then you won't get condensation. For us folks up north who run humidifiers in the winter, the dew point inside our homes is considerably higher than that of the air outside the home so cold stuff tends to "sweat" when we bring it in from outside.

Re: To our resident camera buffs...

Why? Does Canon make/sell good batteries? The reason I ask is I have a Canon (EOS Digital Rebel). Thanks!

Canon batteries have more than just the battery... they have a chip that tells the battery when to stop charging and all that.

Plus...

There are some off-brand batteries that aren't correctly made, and have the same problem that the Dell computers did: They blow up or catch fire inside your camera.

You can buy these things for a lot less than the proper camera batteries, but you are really taking a chance. Sometimes it works out okay, but when you are trying to work them in the cold it is just stressing 'em a bit too much. I just don't trust 'em 'nStuff.

Re: To our resident camera buffs...

Originally Posted by Fluff n Stuff

This is cropped from the original, but this is what the 70-300mm IS DO lens can do when opportunity strikes:

Click for the bigger version 'nStuff. Note that the DO version of the Canon 70-300mm lens is different, twice as expensive and not quite as good as the $550 version of the 70-300mm lens. I took this with the 5D, it's a full frame DSLR, no correction factor. The Rebel will zoom in to about this much of the frame, maybe not quite as close. And this was about 7 feet from this Sharp-Shinned Hawk. This next one is for those who think I may have disturbed the little guy:

Yep... he fell asleep with me clicking away!

Nice! One of my favorite birds, those sharpies. Love when they come clear the house finches from the feeders in the winter. Very skilled flyers, and fast.
Now get me some Goshawk pics like that and I'll be ecstatic. Goshawks are mean, I've had to duck more than once from those things and have a buddy with a nice four inch scar on his head which would've been bigger if he hadn't been wearing a hard hat.